China Returns U.S. Criticism Over Sinking of Korean Ship

By ANDREW JACOBS and DAVID E. SANGER; Andrew Jacobs reported from Beijing, and David E. Sanger from Aspen, Colo.

Published: June 30, 2010

BEIJING -- Three days after President Obama emerged from a tense meeting with President Hu Jintao of China, and accused Beijing of ''willful blindness'' toward North Korea's military provocations, the Chinese government on Tuesday continued the argument about how to handle its testy neighbor.

In a regularly scheduled news conference, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed American calls for a tough line against North Korea, most recently for the sinking of a South Korean naval ship.

The spokesman, Qin Gang, suggested that Mr. Obama had overreached when he accused Beijing of ''turning a blind eye'' to what an international investigation concluded was a North Korean torpedo attack in March on the ship.

The sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors, has intensified already strained relations between the North and the South and thrown into stark relief China's long-standing role as a patron of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.

Mr. Qin contended that China had even more reason than the United States to view the sinking with gravity. ''China is a neighbor of the Korean Peninsula, and on this issue our feelings differ from a country that lies 8,000 kilometers distant,'' he said. ''We feel even more direct and serious concerns.''

United States officials indicated that Mr. Obama was likely to continue trying to step up pressure on China and North Korea, including authorizing new military exercises with South Korea that would take place not far from Chinese waters.

Mr. Obama's strategy appears intended to demonstrate to China that it would pay a price for failing to rein in the North Koreans, who depend on China for food and fuel. On Saturday, Mr. Obama announced that the United States would extend by three years, until 2015, an agreement under which American commanders would take control of South Korean forces in the event of a military clash with the North.

When United States officials first briefed reporters on the meeting between Mr. Obama and Mr. Hu on Saturday during the Group of 20 summit meeting in Toronto, they described a largely friendly session that covered economic and security issues. But in recent days, American officials have acknowledged that the conversation took a decidedly tougher turn when it came to North Korea, and that Mr. Obama emerged from the meeting frustrated at Mr. Hu's unwillingness to acknowledge the North's actions, much less put additional pressure on the country.

The dispute is playing out now in the United Nations. A watered-down ''president's statement'' is under debate in the Security Council that would acknowledge the findings of a South Korean-led investigation, which included experts from four other countries, that concluded that a North Korean submarine sank the ship.

China has led the opposition to the statement and to the idea that the North would have to pay any price for the act of aggression, which some American officials say was essentially an act of war.

An American official familiar with the conversation between Mr. Obama and Mr. Hu said that the discussion of the sinking was ''the toughest part of a generally positive'' talk.

Mr. Hu spoke only in generalities to Mr. Obama about the need for ''peace and stability'' on the Korean Peninsula, the official said. Those are traditional code words for doing nothing that could result in the collapse of the North Korean government, which could result in a flood of refugees into China and might eliminate China's buffer with American forces in the South.

Mr. Obama responded that the North Koreans should not be ''indulged'' for acts of aggression, the official said, and he said that if China were truly interested in preventing the outbreak of hostilities in its region, it would take a much tougher line. It was at a news conference a short time later that Mr. Obama said ''willful blindness'' would not solve the problem.

North Korea has denied the accusations that it sank the Cheonan and has warned that any attempt to punish it would lead to armed conflict.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, said Sunday that he believed that the sinking of the Cheonan was part of a succession struggle in North Korea, as President Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, 27, is being positioned as his successor.

PHOTO: The stern of the South Korean warship Cheonan on a barge in April. It was sunk on March 26, killing 46 crew members. (PHOTOGRAPH BY LEE JUNG-HOON/YONHAP, VIA REUTERS)